The Xiongnu Huns from China and the East to Europe and the Roman Empire

Abstract

The Huns of Europe were a political entity which ultimately originated in the former steppe empire of the Xiongnu. The Huns like the Xiongnu practiced a dual system of governance which divided their state into eastern and western halves. Since the assertion by Deguignes in the eighteenth century that the Huns were originally Xiongnu, much ink has been spilt on answering the question of whether the Huns of Europe were ethnically and racially identical to the Xiongnu who bordered the Chinese Empire. The geopolitical consequences of military defeats would be borne primarily not by the Eastern, but by the Western Roman Empire. The first recorded contact between a people originating in the former..